Characters: Gehrman the first Hunter/Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, Laurence the first Vicar
Summary: Maria and Gehrman are out of the hunt, but unfortunately, Gehrman manages to hurt his leg very badly...
(Author's note: There are different interpretations how Gehrman lost his leg, but in my book, he lost it during a Hunt.
Gehrmaria added because of spite, though I have to admit, the pairing starts to grow on me.
Warnings for blood/gore and graphic depictions of violence.)
It had happened so fast, that Maria needed a while to fathom what just had occurred.
She and Gehrman had been out on the hunt, like pretty much every night, searching for the beasts that escaped from the labyrinths as well as the poor souls who had managed to catch the scourge. Of course Maria and Gehrman weren't the only hunters, back in the workshop they occupied a few others, but there was a rule of thumb, the Hunters always had to go out on the hunt in groups of at least two. Naturally, Maria, as Gehrman's student and girlfriend, would always embark on the hunt with him.
They were what the other Hunters called a dream team. Maria's swiftness and her dexterity with the Rakuyo complemented Gehrman's style of fighting with a large scythe like weapon, which he called the Burial Blade. Gehrman had made all the weapons in the workshop himself and even helped Maria crafting her Rakuyo, so that she didn't had to use the blood blades from Cainhurst, which she despised.
So, when they had stood in front of three large beasts, Maria hadn't been worried. They would be able to hunt them down, as usual and even if one of them got hurt, the blood ministration in the church would make them good as new in only a few minutes.
Maria should have paid better attention, because after her and Gehrman had taken down two of the beasts, the third had got wind of a chance and when Maria turned around, her eyes turning wide at the sight of the wide open jaw, razor sharp teeth ready to tear into her shoulder, she felt how someone, Gehrman, it only could be Gehrman, tackle her and as she rolled off the ground, scurrying back up, splitting her Rakuyo into the dual blades, vaguely aware of having heard a pained scream, she saw that Gehrman's leg was caught in the jaw.
"Gehrman!", she yelled and then dashed towards the beast, her Rakuyo cut deep into the beasts snout and it wailed and let go off Gehrman, who fell to the ground with a grunt. Maria didn't stop there, pulled one of her swords out and used both blades to cut the neck of the beast with precision.
Hot blood spilled on the ground and Maria kneeled down, checking on Gehrman. "Gehrman, can you hear me? Hey!", she said and waved a hand in front of him. His eyes slowly came back into focus and as he recognized her, he said: "Maria, are you alright?"
"You ask me if I am alright, you idiot?!", Maria half yelled. "It wasn't me who almost got eaten! Give me the first-aid-kit, you need help with that leg!"
"The leg... feels like its on fire.", Gehrman groaned. Maria's gaze wandered down to Gehrman's right leg, the one the beast had chewed one and she gasped. It looked like a bloody, red mess.
"Oh no...", she said. "We need to get you back to the church, quick. That looks bad... really, really bad."
"Nothing what Laurence can't fix with his blood ministration.", Gehrman said and gave Maria a pained smile. Even in that condition he didn't want for her to worry too much. It would have been charming, if Maria wouldn't have been worried sick about him.
"Gehrman, the first-aid-kit.", she said again and he finally reached into his coat to give it to her. It included some alcohol to clean out wounds, a piece of wood to bite on and some bandages. Not much, but it had to suffice until they could get Gehrman back to the church.
She took her Rakuyo up again and cut through Gehrman's pants, carefully removing the blood stained fabric from the wound, Gehrman hissing in pain as she was working. Once she was done and could see the whole extent of his wound, Maria drew in a sharp breath.
The leg practically only hang on thanks to a few muscle fibres, the resulting wound was large and bleeding profusely. Maria had the impression she barely would be able to do anything for it. She at least needed to apply some bandages to stop the bleeding.
"We need to patch you up and get you to Laurence as quick as possible.", Maria said and handed Gehrman the wooden stick. "I will clean out the wound and then apply a pressure bandage to stop the bleeding. It will hurt, but you have to hold through."
"I trust you, Maria.", Gehrman said and put the stick in his mouth, closing his eyes, awaiting the pain.
Maria worked as quickly as she could, cleaning out the wound, nearly turning nauseous as she saw how much blood the gauze has soaked up, carefully aligning the leg back to where there still was flesh, having the feeling that it would rip open the moment Gehrman would even think about straining that leg and then applied a pressure bandage. During the whole procedure, Gehrman winced, gasped and hissed, but not screamed once, even though he must have been in excruciating pain.
"Alright.", Maria said, helping Gehrman up and supporting him, his right arm slung over her shoulder. "We need to get you back to Laurence now. Don't strain that leg of yours at all."
"It's that bad, huh...", Gehrman said, not having seen anything, but surely he must have felt how bad it was.
"It... it barely hangs on anymore. I just hope that no beasts will be in our way...", Maria said.
Gehrman grunted in pain: "I thought so..."
"Don't talk, save your strength for walking.", Maria scolded him and the both of them started the trek back to the Cathedral. It wouldn't be a long walk usually, but with Gehrman having a completely unusable leg and on the night of the hunt, they were lucky when they would make it in an hour and Maria knew, that every second counted.
As anticipated, the walk was unbearable slow. Gehrman did his best, but he literally couldn't step on this leg, he had lost a lot of blood and he was in a lot of pain. It surprised Maria that he even was still conscious. It must have been the doing of the holy blood, a normal human would have died only a few minutes after sustaining such an injury. Maria even had two blood sources inside of her, but she swore to her to never use the one that Laurence called "Vileblood". She didn't want to have anything to do with Cainhurst anymore, that part of her life was behind her.
"How much... farther...?", Gehrman asked, voice weak, breath shallow.
"We will be there. Soon. Hold through.", Maria reassured him, even though they only had walked for about ten minutes. She needed to keep Gehrman conscious, the moment he would faint, everything would be over. As strong as she was, it would be hard for even her, to carry such a tall man as Gehrman. Gehrman had always joked about how glad he was, that Laurence was so small, because it made him easy to carry. Maria could understand that now.
The trek continued, slowly. Maria occasionally glanced at Gehrman, talked to him, made sure that he was still there with her, that he would hold onto her. They seemed to be in incredible luck that no beasts were in their way, but of course eventually their luck had to ran out as a few beasts appeared in front of them. Not the large ones, the small ones, but they still could pose a threat in high numbers. Especially for Gehrman, who was unable to fight in his sate.
"Gehrman, I take care of that.", Maria said, taking a few steps back. "Sit down, don't move and by the Great Ones, stay awake."
Gehrman nodded to her as she let him go, taking her Rakuyo and dashed towards the beast group, her blades whirling through the group, blood sputtering everywhere, but mostly on Maria. It was normal for a Hunter. They would always be covered in blood. If they were skilled, it would never be their own blood.
"Damn.", Maria hissed as another group of beasts approached before she even had finished dispatching the first one. As fast and skilled as she was, even she could get overwhelmed and she hissed again when the beasts managed to give her a few good scratches and bites. They hurt, but they were nothing compared to the injury that Gehrman was suffering.
Thinking about him, Maria glanced back to where she left him, worried and wanting to make sure that he was still awake. That turned out to be a deadly mistake. The moment she turned her head, a beast used that moment of inattention to bite deep into her shoulder. Maria screeched in sudden pain, trying to get the beast off, all while a dozen others swarmed around her.
"Maria!", she heard a voice screaming and then something flashed next to her and the pain in her shoulder subdued. She didn't knew what happened, but she used this chance she got and cut down all the beasts around her. As soon as she was done, she stood there, heavily panting, bleeding out of several wounds. As her mind came back from the thrill of the hunt, she remembered Gehrman and her eyes frantically searched for him, gaze shot to where she left him.
She had to realize in horror that he wasn't there anymore, instead, he was laying on the ground in-between all that beast corpses and... his leg wasn't attached anymore.
"Gehrman, CRAP!", Maria shouted, looking at the leg. "Crap crap crap...", she continued to mutter while she got the first-aid-kit out and applied a new pressure bandage, which already turned red once she was done. Then, she helped Gehrman up, hissing because of the pain in her shoulder, but she didn't care.
"We need to get you to the cathedral immediately! Maybe... maybe your leg can still be..." Maria's voice trailed off. "We have to take it with us!" She bend down and picked up the leg, then started walking, practically dragging Gehrman with her.
"Maria... you are hurt...", Gehrman said, his voice barely a whisper.
"I'll live.", Maria simply answered. It was true that her wounds were bleeding and hurt, but they weren't as life threatening as Gehrman's. A blood ministration and she would be as good as new.
"You bleed...", Gehrman continued. "Just let go of me... it is over anyway... Save yourself, Maria... I will only slow you down..."
"Gehrman, NO!", Maria yelled. "You come with me and you stay with me! You would never leave someone behind. Never. I won't let you behind!"
"...please don't risk your life because of me...", Gehrman's voice quivered, it sounded like he was close to crying.
"And what should I tell Laurence? That I left you behind to save my own hide? Even though there still was a chance to save you?!", Maria said. "I won't leave you behind. I get you to the cathedral and we get you fixed up. So stay with me, Gehrman. You can do it! I won't let you die!"
Gehrman didn't reply anymore and when Maria looked at him, she knew why. He had fallen unconscious. "Oh fuck fuck fuck...", Maria cursed under her breath. She could see the cathedral just in front of them, so... she didn't had a choice, even if that would worsen her own wounds.
"I will carry you the rest of the way.", she said and lifted him up, despite her shoulder screaming at her not to put any more strain on it, despite every wound in her body oozing more blood. Once she managed to secure Gehrman over her shoulders, she started to ran.
Maria didn't had any sense of how time had passed once she busted through the doors of the cathedral. She saw Laurence standing there, holding something in his hands. It apparently was breakable, because he dropped it when he noticed both Gehrman's and Maria's state.
"Maria... get him in immediately, I may still be able to save his leg!", Laurence screamed, pointing at one of the blood ministration rooms and then hurrying away, muttering something like "gloves... where is my fucking mask... "
Maria managed to get Gehrman down on a stretcher in the room Laurence had pointed out, when he barged in and pretty much screamed at her. "Get out! And get a blood ministration yourself, you are bleeding out!"
Maria left the room and as soon as she had, she noticed how the adrenaline in her body left her, she was overtaken by an excruciating pain and a deep tiredness. She sank down and sat right in front of the door. No... she couldn't fell asleep. She needed that blood ministration. Laurence was right, she had lost too much blood and if her wounds wouldn't close, she would surely die of blood loss. Or overtaken by her vileblood and that would be even worse.
She knew that Gehrman wouldn't be happy waking up with his girlfriend being dead and as much as she wanted to stay and see first hand if Laurence succeeded, she forced herself to get up and stumble to the next best blood minister, who gave her a blood ministration immediately. As she was lying on the stretcher, Maria couldn't fight the drowsiness anymore and fell into an uneasy sleep.
Once she awoke, her wounds were closed, her pain was gone and she jumped on her feet immediately. What about Gehrman? How much time had even passed? Minutes? Hours? Days? No, she doubted it had been days, she felt too fresh. Well, as fresh as someone who was covered in blood could feel. Still, she had to know about his condition.
As she ran into the direction of the blood ministration room in which Laurence had taken care of Gehrman, she passed his office, the door ajar, and saw him slumped over his desk. Maria stopped and barged into it.
"How is he?!", she yelled, both hands slammed on the desk.
"Good morning to you too.", Laurence said, not looking up. He had something in his hands that looked like the vials used for the blood ministration, just smaller.
"Laurence, I am not in the mood for jokes.", Maria warned. "How is he?"
Laurence still didn't look her into the eyes. Maria's heart sank from her chest into her stomach, that wasn't a good sign.
"...He's alive.", Laurence finally answered. "But I couldn't save it..."
"Couldn't... you mean...", Maria's heart seemed to sink from her stomach even more down, right into her pants.
Laurence nodded: "...I couldn't save his leg. It was too late. The body wasn't accepting it anymore. I... had to amputate the stump from the knee down. The blood closed the wound from the surgery without trouble, but... it can't grow back a leg."
"Oh no...", Maria said. "Gehrman, I am so sorry. It is my fault. He lost the leg because I wasn't paying attention..."
"He said he wanted to see you once you wake up.", Laurence said. "Go to him."
Maria turned around and was on her way to the door, when she turned around to look at Laurence another time. He didn't look good, pale, dark circles under his eyes. They looked reddened too, had he cried?
"Have you even slept, Laurence?", Maria asked.
"Of course not.", Laurence practically snapped at her. "I have better things to do than sleeping!" He then put his attention back to the small vial with blood in his hands.
"...It has to do with Gehrman's leg, right?", Maria asked.
"Just go to him.", Laurence said. "And close the door once you are gone."
It was clear to Maria that he didn't want to talk to her anymore, so she left, closed the door and made her way to the room Gehrman was in. A slight panic bubbled up in her chest. What if Gehrman would hate her? What if he never wanted to see her again? She couldn't help but feel responsible for his leg.
As soon as she stood in front of the door, Maria took a deep breath and knocked, announcing: "Gehrman, it's me, Maria. I am coming in." She didn't wait for an answer and opened the door, entering into a dimly lit room, where Gehrman was lying in a cot.
"Maria.", he said as she stepped next to the cot. "Are you alright?"
"You idiot! Why are you the one asking me?! Again?!", Maria said, tears welling in her eyes. "I should be the one asking you!"
"I fear that I have been better.", Gehrman gave Maria a weak smile. "Maria, I have to apologize. I put you under intense stress when I requested that you leave me behind. I am sorry."
Maria couldn't help the tears spilling out of her eyes anymore. "You... why do you apologize? You lost your leg because of me! If I only had paid better attention..." Maria sat down on the edge of the cot and wiped her tears with her sleeve. It was still red from blood, she had ran straight to Gehrman, instead of taking a shower. That could wait.
"No, Maria, it was my own fault. I decided to barge in, because you are so important to me, that the thought of losing you made me act unreasonable. If I should have trusted in your abilities, then I wouldn't have lost my leg."
"...Gehrman... if you hadn't thrown yourself between me and the beast, it could have been me on that cot, a limb lighter.", Maria sniffled. "Stop trying to make me feel better."
"I mean it.", Gehrman said and Maria felt how his arms engulfed her and she felt herself falling down in his embrace. "That I lost the leg was my own fault. I plan to not let it get me down. I will be the first hunter with only one leg, you will see."
"Gehrman...", Maria said, turning her head to look into his eyes and then averting her gaze. "I am still sorry! I never wanted for something like that to happen to you! I need to get stronger as a hunter!"
"Then let's get stronger as hunters together.", Gehrman said and released Maria from his hug, she slowly got back up, wiping her freshly shed tears away.
"Have you seen Laurence?", Gehrman asked. "He seemed to have taken that whole leg thing worse than I have. He kept apologizing to me and cried his eyes out because he failed to save it. It was pretty similar to you actually."
"He's in his office, working on something.", Maria said. So he indeed had cried, she knew it.
"I thought so.", Gehrman said. "He muttered something like that the blood ministration needed to become mobile."
"That would explain the tiny vial with blood he was tampering with.", Maria said. "Gehrman, you are really alright with that? Your leg is gone. It... it will never come back."
Gehrman sighed and then replied: "I know that I never will get it back, that is why I decided to come to terms with it." He gave Maria a squeeze and then chuckled: "As much as I love to see you, maybe you should take a shower, my love. There doesn't seem to be a single spot on you that isn't full of blood."
"As if you are looking a lot better.", Maria said, grinning the first time since she had entered the room. "I will clean myself up and then come back right away."
On her way to the door, Gehrman called to her again: "Oh and Maria? Convince Laurence to get some sleep."
Maria turned around with a smile and said: "You need to stop caring about others and care for yourself once, my beloved. After all, you have been the one who lost a leg."
(Author's note: So, how do you like my headcanon about how Gehrman lost his leg?
It was actually the reason why Laurence started to experiment with the blood vials and came up with them. Because sometimes help is needed right away.)